Initiatives such as “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat” aim to increase India’s self-sufficiency by promoting domestic industry and reducing reliance on imported products, the US Trade Representative says in a report, observing that US exporters face “significant” problems with tariff and non-tariff barriers in the country.

In its 2022 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, the US government agency responsible for promoting US trade policy said that the United States has actively sought bilateral and multilateral opportunities to remove barriers to the Indian market.

“Nevertheless, US exporters continue to face significant tariff and non-tariff barriers that impede imports of US goods and services into India,” the USTR said.

“While the Indian government has continued its economic reform efforts, it also continues to promote programs such as ‘Make in India’ (2014) and ‘Self-reliant India’ (Atmanirbhar Bharat – May 2020) which aim to increase the India’s self-sufficiency by promoting domestic industry and reducing dependence on foreign suppliers and imported goods,” the report said.

According to the report, India has proposed and enacted several data localization requirements that would pose significant barriers to digital trade between the United States and India.

“These requirements, if implemented, would increase costs for service providers that store and process personal information outside India by forcing the construction or use of unnecessary and redundant local data centers in India. . The requirements could pose barriers to market access, especially for small businesses,” he said.

The USTR said traders continue to be negatively affected by a lack of transparency regarding new and proposed laws and regulations and the lack of consistent notice and comment procedures and inconsistent notification of such measures. at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“This, in turn, prevents traders and foreign governments from providing comment on new proposals or adapting to new requirements. U.S. stakeholders continue to report new requirements being issued with inadequate public notice and comment periods and/or inadequate WTO consultation or notification,” he said.

This lack of transparency imparts a lack of predictability to the Indian market, diminishing the ability of US companies to enter or operate in India.

The United States continues to raise concerns about uniform notification and comment procedures with the Indian government, both bilaterally through the Trade Policy Forum and multilaterally at the WTO, the Minister added. ‘USTR.

In fiscal year 2021, the United States exported over $1.6 billion worth of agricultural products to India. Total bilateral trade stood at USD 80.5 billion in 2020-21 compared to USD 88.9 billion in 2019-20.

India’s exports to the United States amounted to USD 51.62 billion in 2020-21 from USD 53 billion in 2019-20. India’s imports from the United States stood at $28.9 billion in 2020-21 from $35.9 billion in 2019-20, according to Commerce Ministry data.

(This story has not been edited by the Devdiscourse team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)